Jan Koum, a Ukrainian-American entrepreneur, is the co-founder of WhatsApp, one of the world’s most popular messaging applications. His journey from a poor immigrant to a billionaire tech mogul is a true rags-to-riches story, embodying resilience, hard work, and innovation.
Early Life and Struggles
Jan Koum was born on February 24, 1976, in a small village near Kyiv, Ukraine, which was then part of the Soviet Union. Growing up in poverty, his family faced many hardships, including a lack of basic amenities. At the age of 16, Koum and his mother immigrated to Mountain View, California, seeking a better life. They lived in government-assisted housing and relied on food stamps to survive.
Despite these challenges, Koum developed a keen interest in computers and taught himself programming by reading manuals and experimenting with coding.
Career and the Birth of WhatsApp
Koum’s talent for programming led him to work at Yahoo as an infrastructure engineer in 1998. He spent nearly a decade at the company, where he met Brian Acton, his future business partner.
In 2009, after leaving Yahoo and being rejected for jobs at Facebook and Twitter, Koum and Acton saw an opportunity in the growing smartphone market. They wanted to create a messaging app that was simple, private, and free from ads. The result was WhatsApp, launched in 2009.
